Weird PowerBook G4 Graphics Problem
My 6+ year old PowerBook G4 Ti 1Ghz is having occasional video problems. This old computer is happily being used by a student, except for this very annoying video glitch which can be seen in a picture I posted to flickr.
Here are some of the things I can note about video issues:
- I can take a screen capture of the image.
- The image appears through screen sharing apps (VNC)
- Comes and goes without warning.
- Sometimes it will appear on start up when the Apple logo appears.
- New windows from an app will not have the effect, but the background will will still have the effect.
- You can “erase” it by moving windows around.
- The cursor/pointer will appear over the top of the glitch and not be affected by it.
Some of these symptoms makes me think it’s a software issue rather than a hardware issue, however the problem has occurred in Tiger an Leopard and through multiple re-installs of the operating system.
I have searched the Apple message boards but I didn’t turn this up. Doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything posted, just means I may not have used the correct search terms.
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This is similar to a problem I had with my G3 Pismo. It was a while ago so I can’t confirm that it apparent in screen captures. It was resolved by changing out the inverter board – luckily I had a spare one from when I had previously replaced the screen (entire lid assembly).
@Rob, so you had the same kind of video glitch? I thought it was unrelated but he back light takes a minute to “warm up” when it’s been off a while.
A quick Google search shows inverters running about $80. I’m will have to talk to the current user of this system and see if it’s worth it.
@Greg Smith
It wasn’t to the same extent as yours, but I’d be using the machine and the display would suddenly get all distorted and be impossible to use. I think I ended up doing a restart when it happened.
Have you tested it with an external monitor to see if the problem occurs – I’d put the display in mirror mode and then if it happens on only the built-in it’s more likely to be the inverter.
I haven’t tried an external monitor, but I will.
This is not an inverter problem. If you had an inverter problem, you would not see anything or the screen would ‘flicker’. (Inverter increases the voltage to run the lamps for the backlight). This is due to a bad connector that runs at the top of your display (almost the whole width). Apparently the contacts ‘dry out’ over time. This happened to me. For a while I was able to fix by just squeezing the top bevel in ’strategic’ spots along the top edge. After a while, however, this no longer helped, so I had to completely disassemble the laptop to get to the piece. (disassembling is only necessary to get to the 2 phillips screws on both sides of display, which are inaccessible otherwise). Taking apart the display assembly is a difficult task, putting it back together is even worse esp. if you bent the metal tabs during disassembly. Hope this helps. There’re nice guides on ifixit.com if you want.
@Misha thanks. I think I will not mess with it until it completely fails.
My 1.0 GHZ Titanium G4 was dropped by its previous owner. I experience the symptoms seen in your screen shot occasionally when I start up. I can induce the symptoms by playing a DVD long enough (5, 10 minutes), which makes me believe that it is temperature related. When it occurs, half the time I have to restart if it does not go away on its own after a few minutes. I have not tried to take the laptop apart, but have been considering doing so recently since it is hardly ever because the battery doesn’t hold a charge, the power supply that bit the dust, and I also have a 1.67 GHZ PowerBook G4.
honestly it sounds like its the inverter.If that isnt the issue then either its the logic board or the connecters for the inverter to the logic board that might need replacing.You should look into this as if not taken care of soon somewhere along the lines you might cause a short therefore having to replace alot if not all parts.
I have the similar problem with my Powerbook 1.5G. Sometimes the whole screen just goes wild, and usually after a pause and moving the mouse around can put the screen back to normal, but sometimes the system just halts. More often it’s just a few lines of it.
Normally it happens more often when the machine is woken up from sleep, which means the hardware is still cold. I’ve tested it with an external monitor, same thing happened. I’m quite reluctant to say: it’s the logic-board.
Plus, we are able to print-screen the problem, instead of taking an actual photo of this problem, means the problem happens before the signal gets sent to the display panel, otherwise, the print-screen would have been clear.
I guess the aging of the logic-board is a plausible answer to this problem. And I would be more than happen to accept anyone who can point me wrong (which means I don’t have to fork over a few hundred quids to repair the logic board).
Also, the problem can be manifested by running “Network Utility” application, and some other bluetooth related activities like transferring files via bluetooth.